Union launches effort to cap pay of El Camino Hospital executives

By Jason Green

Daily News Staff Writer

Posted:
02/09/2012 06:02:37 AM PST

Updated:
02/09/2012 06:02:43 AM PST

The union that represents 1,200 El Camino Hospital workers formally kicked off an effort Wednesday to qualify a measure for the November ballot that would slash the pay of the health care provider's top brass.

The proposed measure stands to affect as many as nine executives who each make more than $200,000 a year, not counting bonuses. One of the top earners is recently appointed CEO Tomi Ryba, who is to be paid at least $695,000. The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West-backed initiative says paychecks should be limited to twice the salary of the governor.

Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown drew a paycheck of nearly $174,000, according to published reports.

Members of the union claim the effort is intended to ensure money collected from local taxpayers isn't funneled into exorbitant salaries. The private, nonprofit corporation receives between $5 million and $9 million annually from a 1 percent property tax, according to hospital officials, though the union contends the figure is closer to $16 million.

"We're a nonprofit, but we're not behaving as such," Tammy Buckles, a clinical laboratory scientist, said Wednesday before heading out to collect signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot.

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Buckles also pointed to a report released last year by the Santa Clara County civil grand jury that slammed the hospital for a lack of transparency in how it spends taxpayer money. Among other things, the report said the finances of the public district and the private corporation are "intermingled to the extent that one cannot delineate how taxpayer contributions are spent."

The union hopes to collect 14,000 signatures from registered voters in the hospital district but needs just 9,100 to qualify the measure for the Nov. 6 ballot, said Michael Borges, a political organizer for SEIU-UHW. The district, formed in 1956, encompasses Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, most of Sunnyvale and part of Cupertino.

Union spokeswoman Carlyn Foster said 5,100 signatures had been collected as of Wednesday evening. The union plans to turn them over for certification by March 1, she said.

A spokeswoman for El Camino Hospital could not be reached for comment about the union effort.

The drive to cap executive pay comes at a low point in relations between the union and hospital management.

Management declared an impasse in contract talks late last year and imposed terms on the union that included requiring members to pay 10 percent of their health care premiums. Buckles said the industry standard is to provide full coverage to employees who work more than 20 hours a week.

"That's something we cherish as hospital workers," she said.

That led the union to file a complaint with the state Public Employment Relations Board, alleging hospital management had negotiated in bad faith. The two sides are set to meet Friday to see if a resolution can be reached, said union steward and licensed psychiatric technician Kary Lynch.

If no agreement is forthcoming, Lynch said, the agency will issue a binding ruling within 30 days.

Lynch denied that the ballot measure was an attempt to strike back at management. Rather, he said, it is a response to concerns raised by a cross-section of employees, including nurses and doctors.

"The CEO of this hospital makes more than the president of the United States, more than our local congressman, more than the governor and more than the San Jose police chief," Lynch said. "To me, those are huge jobs. I just can't believe our CEO does the kind of job that justifies that kind of money."